Ceiling Fell More Will Fall

[John Evans]

Received a call to inspect an occupied 40 year old home to investigate why the bathroom ceiling collapsed. As soon as I walked inside, I noticed the drywall ceilings (entire home, both floors) were dropping at the center of each 4x8 sheet. In the attic, I discovered the drywall was only glued from seam to seam!! The glue gave way over time. Only nailed along the length of the drywall sheets. Measured the gap between joist and drywall at over 1". Informed the occupants that the ceiling could collapse at any time with potential serious personal safety consequences. The collapsed ceiling was wet from the 2nd floor bathroom and a leaking drain, but there were no nails in the joists or drywall. Amazing.

[Bob Elliott]

Amazing
The DIY guy must have thought it was an easy way to eliminate need for nail patching.

[rbero]

The sheets are pillowing down pretty far, dought if they can save the rock it may be best for them to install RC channel and rerock and put extensions on the ceiling boxes

[gfitzgerald]

Tear it down, in 40 + yrs I have never seen anyone do that. There are many ways to attach drywall, nails, screws even screwed to channel. The front and back of DW is only paper DUH

[rbero]

RC Channel is made to be attached to the ceiling or wall , the channel is perpendicular to the studs or joists attached with screws the sheetrock is attached the the channel with screws and the finishing is normal. If they place the rc channel 16inch o/c 1/2 rock will be fine. Remember ripping sheetrock out is very dusty and dirty most folks don't want that in there home,plus you are saving cost of the insulation and the need for a dumpster I know all about drywall and plaster i have been in the drywall field for 25 years and own a Drywall company

[cjones1]

I once owned a home that had the same problem. The home also was approx. 40 yrs. old. The builder of this particular sub-division was later sued because of the widespread problem. He said that they were trying a new technique to install the ceilings on these homes. Luckily, we found the problem before the ceilings collapsed and repaired them.